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South Alabama Players thanking the fans for their support on the road in Knoxville, TN.

South Alabama rode into Knoxville and proved that they belong in FBS football as they fell to the mighty Volunteers 31-24. They proved that in front of a crowd of 87,266 at Neyland Stadium and on the SEC Network television broadcast. Several college football pundits posted about the game on twitter throughout the game.

South Alabama took the opening kickoff and drove for the first points of the game, but a 31-point run by the Volunteers put them ahead 31-7 before the Jaguars began their rally.

Whatever adjustments were made and whatever was said in the locker room at halftime really got the Jaguars in gear. After Tennessee took the opening kickoff of the second half down the field for a touchdown, the Jags settled in and did not allow any more points for the rest of the game.

South Alabama’s third interception of Tennessee quarterback Worley got the Jaguar rally going. UT’s Brent Brewer intercepted Metheny at the Jaguar 35 yard line, but the first pass play by Tennessee would be deflected by Clifton Crews and Maleki Harris would intercept it and return it 58 yards to the Vol 10 yard line. A personal foul by Tennessee would move it to the 5 yard line. Cris Dinham would get the touchdown to cut the UT lead to 7 points with 8:55 left in the game.

The Jags, trailing 31-24, had the ball first and goal at the UT 7 yard line in the waning moments of the game. Unfortunately that was also the time that the University of Teneessee’s defense finally was able to get pressure on Metheny and kept the Jags from punching it in the end zone late in the game.

“They (Tennessee) ran through us in the first half, and we didn’t have anything offensively other than that first drive,” Jaguar head coach Joey Jones said in his post-game remarks. “We came in at halftime and I challenged them to come out and fight. And they did that. We were eight yards from making unbelievable history, but we didn’t do it. I am proud of the way we fought. We did some great things in the second half. My hat’s off to my team.”

“Tennessee has a really good football team. They did a good job against us. But I’m just real proud of the way our kids fought.”

Also in his post-game remarks, Coach Joey Jones said that they were going to go for the two-point conversion if they had scored. “It was going to be do-or-die. We were a couple of plays away from beating a SEC team.”

South Alabama will return to Sun Belt play when they travel to Troy for a noon kickoff with TV broadcast on the Sun Belt Network.

This is video that shows the botched field goal that got the Jaguars going in the second half.

It’s gameday, one of the largest in South Alabama history literally. They will be playing in Neyland Stadium, one of the largest in the nation with a capacity of over 102,000 seats.

The game will kick off at 11:21am CDT and will be broadcast by the SEC Network. It will also be broadcast on 105.5 FM WNSP in Mobile and world wide on www.wnsp.com. Lee Shirvanian will handle play-by-play while Rick Cleveland will over color commentary.

The key to South Alabama having a chance to win the game starts with turnovers. Tennessee is #1 in the SEC and #3 nationally in forced turnovers with 12. They have eight interceptions and four fumble recoveries. THe Jags cannot afford to turn over the ball againt a big SEC team.

Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley will be starting for the Vols. Last week he was benched in favor of redshirt freshman Nathan Peterman against Florida. However he was injured on top of not playing well which returns Worley to his starting position.

Probably the most experienced and talented groups on the Tennessee team is their offensive line. They will be relied upon to get the Volunteer offense going. Conversely the Jaguar defense may be the best unit for the Jaguars depth and experience wise.

South Alabama utilizes two, and sometimes three, quarterbacks. Coach Jones said it’s a bit of a gut-feeling as to when a change of pace is warranted.

In the Jaguars previous game against Western Kentucky, Ross Metheny played the entire first half before Brandon Bridge started the second half to help ignight the Jaguar offense to a 31-24 win after trailing at halftime 21-10.

Danny Sheridan has South Alabama listed as a 19-point underdog in the game. While this does not sound good for the Jaguars, it could be some big motivation for the team. The Jags are not expected to win but this game is a must win for the Vols as they have just dropped the last two games and will face two top-15 teams in the next two weeks when they play Georgia and South Carolina.

South Alabama also comes into this game with confidence. They rebounded from a season-opening loss to Southern Utah with wins over Tulane and Western Kentucky. They have learned what it takes to win and they have learned their strengths and weaknesses. But they may also fall into a crack where the UT players are not motivated for a ‘new program’. They just came off of road losses to #2 Oregon and #21 Florida and will face Georgia and South Carolina after the Jags.

University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium just celebrated it’s 92nd birthday on Tuesday. The Volunteers football team originally played at Baldwin Park that was once located between Grand Avenue and Dale Avenue north of Fort Sanders. Then from 1909 to 1920 the team played at Wait Field, which was once located on 15th Street.

The stadium was first conceived in 1919 when Colonel W.S. Shields, president of Knoxville’s City National Bank and a University of Tennessee trustee, provided the initial capital to prepare and equip an athletic field.

The original stadium which consists of the lower level of the current stadium’s West Stands was completed in March of 1921 and was named Shields-Watkins Field in honor of the donor and his wife. However, the project ran out of money and was unfinished temporarity until a suggestion at a meeting of the University’s Scarabbean Senior Society that the students and facult finisht the project together by MacGregor Smith.

The students and faculty finished the field over a two-day period and an invitational track meet was held as a celebration and was the first event held at Neyland Stadium.

The first football game was held on September 24, 1921 with the Vols defeating Emory & Henry 27-0.

General Robert Reese Neyland came to Tennessee as an ROTC instructor and backfield coach in 1925 and was named head football coach in 1926. He came to Tennessee as an Army captain and left as a brigadier general and brought one of the most efficient single-wing offenses in the country to go with a strong defense.

Gene McEver began the Neyland Era with a 98-yard opening kickoff return in the 1928 game against Alabama. Neyland’s 1939 team were the last to shut out each of its regular season opponents. During his career of 216 games, 112 opponents were held scoreless and the school still holds the NCAA record for holding opponents scoreless for 71 consecutive quarters.

Neyland won the Southern Conference titles in 1927 and ’32 while earning undefeated streaks of 33 and 28 games. They also won SEC Championships in 1938, ’39, ’40, ’46 and ’51 while coaching four national championship teams. His 21 year career, as coach went from 1926 through 1952 with two interruptions for military service, has a record of 173-31-12.

The Stadium was renamed Neyland Stadium in honor of General Neyland in 1962 shortly after his death. Shortly before his death, he spearheaded the stadium’s first major expansion that were so far ahead of their time that they have formed the basis for every expansion since then.

The original Shields-Watkins Field capacity was 3,200. Five years later in 1926 the East stands were added to increase the capacity to 6,800. In 1930 the original West Stands were expanded from 17 rows to 42 rows to further increase capacity to 17,860.

In 1937 a small section of seating called North Section X were constructed across the North endzone which added 1,500 seats. The following year the East stands were expanded to 44 rows to increase the capacity to 31,390.

Ten years later, in 1948, another expansion of the stadium resulted in the south endzone being enclosed in a horseshoe style adding 15,000 seats to increase seating to 46,290.

Several expansions occured in the 1960’s. The first, in 1962, was adding the West Upper Deck adding 5,837 seats and a pressbox. In 1966 North Section X was replaced by a grandstand that seated 5,895. Then in 1968 the East Upper Deck was added which sat 6,307 to raise the overall capacity to 64,429.

In 1972 and 1976 the two Upper Decks were connected to enclose the south endzone and gave contiguous upper seating around three sides of the stadium and increased the total capacity to 80,250.

In 1980, the North Stands were built enclosing the north endzone in a bowl style and further increased the capacity of 10,999 seats. In 1987, the West Executive Suites were constructed and were a net loss of seats, but a seating ajustment for students in 1990 actually increased the total seating to 91,902.

In 1996 the last major expansion was completed with the North Upper Deck to fully enclose the upper level with a net gain of 10,642. Then in 1997 seating adjustments were made to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was followed by the addition of the East Executive Suites to make the total capacity of 104,037 in 2000.

An addition of the East and West Club Seats in 2006 and 2009 decreased the total capacity to 100,011. Then in 2010 the completion of the Tennessee Terrace raise the stadium capacity to it’s current total of 102,455.

The dedication of the stadium as Neyland Stadium occurred on October 20, 1962 with a 27-7 loss to Alabama. On September 14, 1968 in a 17-17 tie with Georgia marked the first game on artificial turf. Then on November 27, 1993 in a 62-14 win over Varnderbilt marked the final game on artificial turf.

The first night game at Neyland Stadium was on September 16, 1972 with a 28-21 win over Penn State. The largest crowd recorded at Neyland Stadium was 109,061 on September 18, 2004 with a 30-28 Tennessee win over Florida.

Tennessee set a school record by averaging 107,595 fans per home game in 2000.

If you ever want a tour of Neyland Stadium, the University offers them by appointment only Monday through Thursday between 10am and 3pm and must be scheduled 5 days in advance. The cost for the tour is $8 per person for a group up to 20 and $150 for groups of more than 20.

It has also hosted several different events including concerts, political rallies and religious gatherings. It has also hosted several NFL exhibition games.

Neyland Stadium as seen in 1934 | no2minutewarning.com

Photo of Neyland Stadium some time in 1962 or 1963 | Photo by Knoxnews.com

Head coach Joey Jones made an appearance on the “Tim Brando Radio Show” last week and talked about the Jags win over Western Kentucky and the growth and the Jaguar program.

Brando has been a supporter of the program and has had coach Jones on a number of times, including when his show was being carried by WNSP. Since then WNSP no longer carries Brando’s show but he still talks to Jones as well as displays the Jaguar helmet occasionally if you watch the video stream of his radio show.

He made an analogy that he also used on the Joey Jones radio show. He said he feels like he has been in the movie “Braveheart” by feeling gutted emotionally over the last few weeks.

The Jags have a two-game winning streak for the first time since the 2011 season. They have not had a three-game winning streak since the 19-0 streak to begin the program. They will attempt to do that when they travel to Tennessee on Saturday.

The South Alabama Jaguar baseball team’s recruiting class was ranked #29 nationally by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper. The rankings, released last week, selects the top 40 teams in the country for their recruiting efforts and the Jags is the only school from the Sun Belt Conference to earn a spot in the rankings.

Coach Calvi and his staff signed 10 student-athletes to National Letters-of-Intent in November as well as adding five additional signees for the upcoming 2014 season.

USA lost 15 seniors to graduation and two juniors to the Major League Baseball Draft. Last season the Jags were the Sun Belt Conference Champion and played in the NCAA Regionals.

The coaching staff had to replace players such as Jordan Patterson, Kyle Bartsch and Dylan Stamey. To do so they brought in a mixture of high school and junior college players so they can have some players with experience to go along with their returners and to help the freshmen to make the transition to Division I baseball.

South Alabama will open fall practice on Monday, October 7 at Eddie Stanky Field.

Here is the full top-40 list as ranked by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper:

University of Tennessee head football coach Butch Jones spoke about South Alabama in his Monday press conference.

He said that the Jags are athletic, physical and very aggressive on defense. The spoke about how the Jags bring lots of pressure and play very good team defense with discipline and fundamentals and that they are well coached.

The spoke about the Jaguar offense by saying that the quarterbacks like to run. Overall, the offense plays uptempo offense and they try to get the ball to the edges. He noted the Jaguars good play-calling with a mixture of screen passes, running plays and deep play-action passing when the defense creeps up. He noted that the Volunteers will have to do a great job and be ready for everything when they play South Alabama.

He noted that UT will be working on eliminating mistakes and turnovers while working on execution. But Butch is looking to see more from his football team. He notes that how they approach this week will speak about how they respond after the last two losses over the last two weeks.

Butch also called on the Volunteer fans to come out for the game. He said that they are going to need them in Neyland Stadium to show they are united. He wants the student body to get out for every game and for the student body tickets to sell out every single home game.

The South Alabama football team had Monday off, as they do every Monday. Head football coach Joey Jones met with the media to talk about the Jaguars upcoming trip to Knoxville. Below are some highlights from the press conference.

Coach Jones’ opening statement: “Tennessee is an SEC team that has played two really, really good opponents the last two weeks. If you watch them on film you see how well-coached they are, how well they get after you on defense, how aggressive they are on the offensive line. What I see is a really good football team that has played two great teams in the last two weeks.”

Jones then spoke about how different the Jaguars are from the start of fall drills back in August. “We have matured, I think we’ve grown. One thing that we have been harping on this whole time is that we have to get better fundamentally and get better at what we do. Our kids are doing that, they are going out and practicing hard, and I think they have gotten better. The thing I challenge my team with every week is that every team is going to have some weaknesses, our goal is by midseason to delete all of them. People are going to look at us and try to find holes.”

“When you look at great teams they get better week to week, weaknesses they may have had in week one or two they don’t have anymore. My challenge to the team every week is to keep those weaknesses from being a problem.”

Jones then spoke about his expectations for the team’s maturity. “Just an example of it came yesterday when we went out to practice, there were some seniors at the gate meeting guys as they walked in, talking about how we were going to have a great practice. They kept saying it over and over again, and because of their leadership we had a great practice. That goes back to the leadership and maturity of our senior class.”

Jones was asked about the team coming together, he answered by saying the following. “I have noticed that really throughout the season. I think that our offense, defense and special teams are all one now, it’s not a situation where one group is talking about the other. The defense went out on the field after we fumbled last week and said, ‘Coach, we got it.’ They weren’t complaining. The offense went on the field after we gave up a touchdown and said, ‘We got it.’”

“That means you’re part of the team. It doesn’t matter what the offense, defense or special teams do individually, it matters what we do as a whole, and I think our kids really understand that now.”

Jones fielded a question about his concerns facing Tennessee. “Probably just sheer size, they are huge on the offensive line, and the defensive line may be even bigger on the inside. They have big linebackers, they have done a great recruiting there. That will probably be the biggest thing you see.”

“And then just the fact that we are playing an SEC team. They lose by 14 points to one of the top 20 teams in the country last week, a lot of teams are going to lose by 14 points to a team like that, or by more. They have a real good football team, I’ve been impressed with their coaching. I watch film, I understand the guys are teaching technique, they are very well-coached in all phases.”

“It’s going to be a great challenge for us, but one our kids are looking forward to.”

He fielded a question about seeing the Jaguar fans react to the weekend. “One thing I know is that we will have great support from our fans, we always have. We went to New Orleans and had more fans than Tulane had in their home stadium, and our fans have supported us at N.C. State and Mississippi State or wherever we have gone. That’s exciting for our players.”

“We may have 1,000 people compared to their 99,000, but they will be in full support of the Jaguars.”

Jones spoke about how playing Tennessee on TV helps the program. “Being on a national stage, seeing the name South Alabama on TV for three hours, is great for us. It’s something we are striving for, we want to be nationally known, and this is one step in that process. We’re excited about it, but one thing I have told our players is that this is not about TV, radio, the crowd, all of that really doesn’t matter. What matters is how good we are, how well we practice and how much we bring from the practice field to the game.”

“All the other stuff is extra, though we certainly like having our name out there, for a young program in its first year in [NCAA] Division I, playing on nationally TV is exciting for us.”

Jones was asked about first-year players who have come in and made an immediate impact on the team. “We actually have a lot of new players in our starting lineup compared to last year. When you look on offense we have a couple of receivers out there doing very well and our top two running backs weren’t here last year.”

“On defense we have a few guys in the secondary. You’re looking at probably nine or 10 guys who have made a big impact on our football team that are either junior-college transfers or transfers from other four-year schools. But that’s a part of recruiting, you recruit them to try and make yourself better and increase your talent at each position. We haven’t missed on many, we’ve hit some good players who have come in and been big factors on this team and a reason we have been successful.”

He also fielded a question about how pleased he is with where the program is right now. “I’m happy where we are, but you see so many things we can improve on. I think we are a team that has fought for what it has gotten, one that has fought and scrapped the last two weeks and had a mature presence about it to finish the game. I’m proud of that and happy where we are there.”

“But do we have to get better? Yeah, there are a couple of things we have to get better at. One is red zone defense, we are giving up too many points in the red zone, and vice versa, on offense, we are having to kick too many field goals. Those are a couple of areas we can really improve on, that’s giving up points and getting points on offense.”

Linebacker Clifton Crews spoke about Tennessee. “Florida’s defensive line got after their offensive line pretty good. Tennessee turned the ball over a lot, but this is another SEC game. I think we can capitalize if we can rattle them and get them on their heels.”

Crews the spoke about the bye week. “Mentally, it kind of took us back to day one when we were in (preseason) camp. We tackled in practice much more than we usually do. I think (defensive coordinator) Coach (Kevin) Sherrer took it back to the fundamentals. The bye week didn’t do anything but help us. We just looked at ourselves and didn’t really worry about the opposition. We just focused on what we can improve on so we can take that to the field.”

Placekicker Aleem Sunanon spoke about the team’s confidence level. “We really struggled with confidence after week one. But as we got past it and got to week two, the confidence-level just started rising. Once we had that taste of winning in our mouths, that confidence just sky-rocketed. We took that into the Western Kentucky game. I think our confidence-level will continue to rise, we just have to keep performing at a much higher level than what people expect.”

South Alabama and Tennessee kick off at 11:21am CDT and will be on the SEC Network which is locally available on UTV44. They are also available on 105.5FM WNSP in the Mobile area and http://wnsp.com/ worldwide.

Troy was destroyed by Mississippi State 62-7 in Starkville. Western Kentucky rebounded with a 58-17 win over Morgan State. Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Akron 35-30 in Akron. Memphis defeated Arkansas State 31-7. Baylor took ULM out behind the woodshed with a 70-7 spanking. Former South Alabama defensive coordinator Bill Clark picked up a 32-26 win over Georgia State.

The South Alabama Jaguar football team returned to the practice field Sunday night as they began game week preparations for their trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. The players had Thursday through Saturday off.

South Alabama is in the middle of a tough three-game stretch for the Volunteers. They lost to #2 ranked Oregon in Eugene and lost to Florida in Gainesville on Saturday. After the Jags, they will host #9 ranked Georgia followed by #12 South Carolina. Could the Jags catch the Vols reeling from back-to-back losses while looking ahead to SEC eastern division foes Georgia and South Carolina?

The seniors challenged the underclassmen to be ready to return on Sunday and they were at the gates challenging them again to have a good practice after a few days off.

Head coach Joey Jones spoke about viewing the Tennessee game over the weekend. “(Tennessee) coach (Butch) Jones has done a great job, first of all,” Jones said to AL.com. “They are very well-coached and they play hard. I thought they went out against Florida and really played hard. You can tell, I know when I watch a team play what the coaches have done and they are well coached and they were getting after it. I’m very impressed with them in watching them play.”

“They’ve gotten better as the season has gone along. They’ve obviously played some really good teams. Florida is a top 10 team and has one of the best defensive fronts that I’ve seen in college football. They do a great job at Florida and Tennessee, from what I saw was, in the second half they never let up. You could tell the intensity level was there. They’re a very good football team.”

The Jaguars have been trying to prepare themselves for how loud some of these stadiums are going to be this season. But Neyland Stadium, with a capacity of over 100,000, is something that you just cannot prepare for how loud it can be. But the goal would be to strike early and quiet the crowd early.

Jones said that they have a number of loudspeakers turned up as loud as they can go. They practice every day with music and external noise. The last two weeks they have been playing “Rocky Top” on a regular basis as well.

The team will have Monday off as normal, then they return to the practice field on Tuesday to continue preparing for the Vols.

Saturday’s game will be available on the SEC Network, which is UTV44 in the Mobile area. Check your local listings elsewhere. Kickoff is scheduled for 11:21 AM.

Tune in early as the Joey Jones Show will be the lead-in to the SEC Network broadcast. THe Joey Jones Show airs on UTV44 at 10:30am.

The University of South Alabama Athletic Department announced that the women’s volleyball team, who were scheduled to compete this weekend at the Razorback Invitational hosted by Arkansas, will be unable to compete. They cited widespread injury and illness throughout the team as the reason.

There is no makeup date for any of the matches versus Arkansas, Saint Louis or Kansas State were planned at the time of release.

The Lady Jags are 5-5 on the season and will open up Sun Belt Conference play next weekend will host Arkansas-Little Rock on Friday at 7pm and Western Kentucky on Saturday at 5pm in Jag Gym.

We hope the lady Jaguars recover quickly and are ready to go by next weekend. Go Jags!